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What is Open Source Software ? PDF Print E-mail
Open source is a special kind of software, not in the way it's been written, but in the way it is offered to the market. Essentially, open source software is free ! There is no charge to download the software and use it, whether it is for personal or commercial purposes. The only limitations are in the ongoing distribution of that software. In a nutshell, you cannot download open source software and subsequently sell it on, whether you leave it as it is or make your own changes to it. In this way the software is constantly improved by the people and companies who use it. Bug fixes and enhancements have, by licence, to be distributed freely.

Open Source software is more pervasive than many people realise. For instance, the majority of the world's web sites (including this one) run entirely on a stack of Open Source software collectively referred to as LAMP:


 Linux  (operating system) 
Linux logo
 Apache (web server) 
Apache logo
MySQL (database)
 
MySQL logo
PHP (scripting)
 
PHP logo

 

In addition this website uses an Open Source content management system (CMS) called Joomla . 

 

So in addition to spending less money, what's the benefit of obtaining your free software through us ? For a start, we have identified open source software that we believe is best-of-breed in certain areas (for example, our Asterisk-based Voice-over-IP PBX package). Therefore, you don't have to evaluate the many alternatives out there (and being free means that both good and bad software is available to you). Secondly, we have gone to the trouble of educating ourselves in the intricacies of the different products, saving you that potential cost (as training in the use of Open Source software is one area where the software developers can legitimately charge). Thirdly, we can offer a single support point for any of the Open Source products you obtain from us.
 
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